THE RETURN OF THE GHOST

There are lots of ghosts in Iceland. The other day, a lady I know witnessed a spooky event out of her window. She lives in a high-rise close to amain road through the Reykjavík suburbs. The weather was lovely, no wind to speak of, no slippery tarmac oranything, the lady in question never drinks anything stronger than a weak brew of coffee, and yet she saw acar driving along the road leap up in the air and crash down on another car. Several people were badly hurt.The lady who witnessed this unusual event immediately realized what was going on. The spook she remembered from her childhood had returned to haunt his favorite spot.

Icelandic society made a leap from medieval times into the twentieth century during the second World War. This lady was brought up in a hut belonging to an ancient farmland, long before the road came into existence. Sheremembers the spook very vividly. He used to get a kick out of flinging up sheep and throwing them brutallydown on the ground. Sometimes the cattle did not survive. The lady recognized the way he flipped the car up inthe air. Now, this spook used to be quite a nuisance in days gone by. He used to scare the horses and severallegs were broken as a result. At the time, the inhabitants had sought out a pastor who came and did some splashing around and exorcising. That kept the spook at bay for half a century or so.

If you intend to stay in Iceland, there is a lot of things you have to know about ghosts and spooks. Some of them can be dangerous. When you drive from Keflavík to Reykjavík, you pass a spot where a great many people have died in road accidents. Several drivers claim to have seen a ghost waving at them by the road, attempting to distract them so they will miss the bend. Others say that they suddenlyrealize they have a hitherto unknown passenger sitting right next to them.

There are many other reported instances of road spooks and ghosts all over the country, and the roads already being risky enough as it is… There are also places where ghosts and sorcerers are closely linked...

Ghosts and spooks do fade away, and that’s lucky, otherwise there would hardly be any space left for the living. Their feet start fading, slowly becoming quite transparent, then the body slowly fades away, and then there is nothing left to be seen of the spook excepthis nose. This disintegration process can last for centuries, depending on the ghost’s initial strength.

There are lots of exciting stories about ghosts all over the world. We like Norwegian ghosts.

Find out about the Monk ghost in Trondheim

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