kaijuborn:

Scandinavian tales and creatures

Sjörån (watchers of lakes) guard lakes and ponds and all that lives within them. Unlike their sisters, skogsrån and skeppsrån, sjörån are much more protective and vicious. They will not tolerate anyone who tries to catch their fish or otherwise disturb the waters, and they will not hesitate to drag fishermen down into the murky depths of their lake to drown them.

kaijuborn:

Scandinavian tales and creatures

Once, a young man was out wandering while the sun set. Growing weary, he sat down by a great oak to rest. It wasn’t long before he could see a group of beautiful elven women dancing in a circle together out on a meadow. They moved with ethereal grace, and in the middle of them the elf queen stood. She was tall and fair and bid the young man to join them in their dance, and against better judgment the man accepted. How the dance ended nobody knows, but when the young man was found the morning after he had become quiet and contemplative, his mind still trapped in the dance with the elf queen.

kaijuborn:

Scandinavian tales and creatures

Once, a young man was out hunting when he spotted three swans landing by a lake. The swans suddenly cast off their bird guises and became three beautiful young women instead, and they waded out into the water to bathe. Enthralled by their beauty, the young man snuck forward and stole one of the guises, which to him looked like a feathered white cape. When the women had finished bathing two of them changed back to swans and flew away while the third cried and begged to have her cape back. The man ignored her pleas and took her back to his home to marry her. For seven years they lived together, but on the evening of their seventh wedding anniversary, he told the her about her white cape and showed it to her once again. The moment she touched it she turned back into a swan and flew out the window, leaving the man forever.

kaijuborn:

Scandinavian tales and creatures

Maran is a nightmare in human form. When out searching for a victim she has the shape of a black fog, able to get through the tiniest keyhole or a crack in the window. She targets sleeping males and, taking the form of a young woman, she will sit across the man’s chest and ‘ride’ him. This renders him unable to move and gives him dreadful nightmares, and sometimes Maran will kiss him, giving him bloody sores around his mouth.

kaijuborn:

Scandinavian tales and creatures

Skeppsrån (watchers of ships) are beautiful but elusive women who guard ships sailing across the ocean, protecting them from raging storms and the giant beasts that lurk down in the deepest waters. Some believe skeppsrån were originally skogsrån; their spirits trapped within the wood planks of the ship and forced to leave their precious forests to roam the seas instead.

kaijuborn:

Scandinavian tales and creatures

Näcken is a beautiful young man who can be found near, or in, streams and rivers. He is eerily good at playing the violin, and anyone who hears him playing will become enchanted and lured into drowning themselves in the waters. He is however willing to teach his skill to humans, but it comes with a price; anyone taught by Näcken will become enthralled by their own music when playing, unable to stop unless someone cuts off the violin strings with a knife.

kaijuborn:

Scandinavian tales and creatures

Skogsrån (watchers of the forest) are mysterious women who guard the forest and all its creatures. Seen from the front they are unearthly beautiful, but their backs are hollow like old and rotten trees, and they often have the tail of an animal. To protect the forest, they seduce and sleep with woodcutters and then steal their souls, leaving them empty husks of their former selves.

kaijuborn:

Scandinavian tales and creatures

Gårdsnissar (farm brownies) are a type of gnome who live around farms, helping out the inhabitants by milking the cows, feeding the horses and collecting eggs from chickens. They never show themselves, but do not make the mistake of thinking they don’t exist. If they are mistreated they will get their revenge; making the milk go sour, stealing valuables, letting the horses escape and tormenting the cat.

kaijuborn:

Scandinavian tales and creatures

Havsmannen (the man of the sea) is a handsome young man who can be found wandering along shores in misty weather. He would seek out a lonely sailor’s wife and transform himself into her husband, which often resulted in the wife giving birth to a green-skinned child with gills and fin-like feet. As an apology, Havsmannen would give the sailor good winds and calm seas, ensuring that his boat never ran aground.  

rhaenytargaryen:

MYTHOLOGY MEME: MYTHOLOGY [1/1]- NORSE

Norse mythology is primarily attested in dialects of Old Norse, a North Germanic language spoken by the Scandinavian peoples during the European Middle Ages, and the ancestor of modern Scandinavian languages. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland, where the oral tradition stemming from the pre-Christian inhabitants of the island was collected and recorded in manuscripts. This occurred primarily in the 13th century. These texts include the Prose Edda, also called the Younger Edda, composed in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and the Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda, a collection of poems from earlier traditional material anonymously compiled in the 13th century.