The ancient Scandinavians and Vikings were northern and harsh people. Therefore, in myths they have a lot of creatures to match them: huge, bloodthirsty, seeking to kill or at least greatly harm people. In this collection of 10 of the weirdest and creepiest critters even fearless Vikings feared.
Kraken
There are a huge number of theories and guesses about the most famous sea monster. Some of them claim that the Kraken lives off the coast of Norway and Iceland and is so huge that sailors often confuse it with a small island. Others say that a huge kraken settled in the Bermuda Triangle area and all the mysterious disappearances in that area are his tentacles. It is only known for certain that the first mentions of this monster appeared among Icelandic sailors, and its name came from their own language.
Rumor has it that the Kraken is so huge and strong that it is able to grab with its tentacles and drag even the largest warship to the bottom. But even more dangerous is the whirlpool that occurs when the Kraken quickly dives. The sailors said that the Kraken can digest food swallowed for up to three months. And all this time he excretes so much excrement that huge schools of fish always follow him. There was even a saying that if a fisherman had a very rich catch, they said about such a person that he “fished on the Kraken”.
In the late 1770s, Captain Robert Jameson said that he and the sailors saw a huge body up to 2.5 kilometers in length and almost 10 meters in height, which appeared from the water and then plunged back. They followed him and caught so many fish that they filled the whole ship with it. The captain gave these testimonies in court under oath.
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Nyokki
Nyokki are scary evil creatures from Norse folklore. Something in between mermaids and mermaids. During life they were sad, lonely people, and after death they could not get to heaven. As a result, the Nyokki remained to live near the water in order to lure people and animals into it. They were especially dangerous for unbaptized babies and pregnant women.
Like the Greek Sirens, Nyokki could use singing or music to charm their victims and drown them later in water. There are stories in which Nyokki taught people the art of playing the violin in exchange for a sacrifice or something else. There is no single idea of what Nyokki looked like. Someone described them as ugly demons, someone as beautiful maidens turning into monsters, and someone even in the form of four-legged animal-like creatures.
Draugr
Translated from Old Icelandic "draugr" means a ghost. But if you believe the legends, this creature was much more terrible than an ordinary ghost. Legends said that the body of Draugr can swell to enormous sizes, becoming much heavier and sometimes remaining not subject to decomposition for many years. This makes him "related" to such creatures as zombies and vampires. The appearance of the Draugr depended on how they died: water constantly dripped from the drowned, bleeding wounds were on the body of the fallen warrior, and those who were hung appeared with a rope around their necks.
It was believed that the Draugras could be the guardians of the burial mounds that protect the graves and temples. In other legends, the draugrs left their graves at night only to jump on the rooftops and frighten people. In medieval Scandinavia, the fear of these reanimated dead was so strong that people wore special protective amulets, put special inscriptions on the graves that would not allow the deceased to rise from it. And thanks to the draugr, Iceland has a custom to knock on the door three times at night. It was believed that the dead always knock only once.
Pesta
She's the Plague. The Black Death in the Middle Ages became a real tragedy for Scandinavia, as well as for the rest of Europe. Denmark has lost a third of its entire population, and Norway has lost half of its people. There was so much death and destruction that soon people began to personalize the plague, turning it into some kind of terrible mystical fear.
Legends said that this old woman went from farm to farm spreading the plague. In her hand, she can carry either a rake, and this is a sign that one of the inhabitants will survive, or a broom, which suggests that everyone from this house will soon die of the plague.
Troll
The word "troll" itself is translated from Swedish as witchcraft. In the folk tales of Scandinavia, where the legends about these creatures originated, there are as many images of trolls as there are stories about them. Someone said that trolls live in castles and underground palaces, frightening local residents with their size and witchcraft. Others argued that the rocks in the mountains are the trolls caught in the sunlight. It was believed that trolls could be giants, the size of ogres, or as small as gnomes.
Most legends describe trolls as extremely ugly creatures, ranging in height from three to eight meters. Almost always, the main attribute of almost any troll is a large nose. It was believed that trolls have the nature of a stone, that is, they are born from rocks and absolutely cannot stand sunlight, turning back into rocks as soon as it hits them. Many legends have indicated that trolls eat human meat and are very fond of devouring people whole.
Mara
In Scandinavian mythology, Mara is an evil spirit, a demon that sits on a person's chest at night and causes bad dreams. Sometimes, under the weight of the demon, a person could even suffocate in his sleep. It is with his name that the Russian term "nightmare" and the English-language "nightmare" are associated. Maru was feared not only in Scandinavia, there is a similar character in Slavic mythology, similar to our kikimora. By the way, we already had a post about the most terrible monsters of Slavic mythology.
Sometimes Mara was described as an ethereal spirit, but more often it was believed that she takes on a female form with long, flowing hair, which she likes to comb. According to other legends, Mara was a black, shaggy and very scary creature, but also female. She can scare people, appearing at night in yards or in front of windows, and can also harm a person's health if she breathes on him.
Garm
In Germanic-Scandinavian mythology, Garm is a huge, evil four-eyed dog that guards the entrance to the world of the dead. It was believed that Garm was conceived by the giantess Angrboda from the god Loki himself. Garm is a guard tied to a rock in the Gnipa cave, which, according to legend, is covered with blood from the inside. It is also the largest and most powerful of the dogs. His howl, according to legend, will be one of the signs of the beginning of Ragnarok. Almost a complete analogue of Garm in ancient mythology is the guardian of the underworld of the dead, Cerberus.
Margyug
Margyug is a huge sea creature that appears before a storm and alerts sailors of the impending danger. The earliest mention of Margyug is found in the composition "The Royal Mirror", created in the middle of the XIII century. If you believe the legend, then Margyug is a half-man, half-fish, something akin to mermaids or sirens. Like them, the upper body of the creature looks like a woman, with the only difference that Margyug's fingers are not separated, but tied together by membranes. The lower part of the body is like a fish - with scales, tail and fins.
Margyug usually dives into the water and shows herself over the waves with fish in her hands. Moreover, if a creature begins to swim to the ship, playing with the fish and throwing it towards the ship, then the sailors are afraid for their lives. This is an omen that most of the crew will soon perish in the storm. If Margyug eats fish or throws it away from the ship, it means that even in spite of the severe storm, the sailors will be able to save their lives.
Huldra
Huldr are young attractive girls with long blond hair. Often they are so beautiful and charming that a person falls in love with her at first sight. The only thing that distinguishes the huldra from the human girl is the long tail, similar to that of a cow, which she carefully hides. The Huldrs live richly - they have many horses, cows and sheep, a lot of food and rich clothes.
There are many stories when young unmarried men, fascinated by the beauty of the huldr, stayed with them. Moreover, if a man is kind to her, loves her and does not reread, then they can live together happily ever after. But otherwise, if a person has stopped loving his wife-huldra, then he will not be able to return back to people. Then the huldra will appear before him in the form of an extremely ugly woman and harm in every way until he lives off the world.
Khafgufa
There are many images of huge sea monsters in world folklore: Tiamat, Leviathan, Begemot, Aspidochelon, Yaskontiy, Kitai-fish, Ao, Saratan, Lingbakr. But Halfgufa was considered the foremother of all other sea monsters. As sailors described her: "Lingbakr is the greatest of all whales in the world, but Halfgufa is the biggest monster created at sea." It was believed that it is so huge that simply by opening its jaws it can completely absorb people, ships, huge whales, and in general everything that it gets.