In Icelandic folklore, as in many other cultures, there are various stories and beliefs about supernatural beings and spirits. Including children’s ghosts or Úðurður in Icelandic. Which means the one who is carried out. These child ghosts are often associated with the tragic or untimely deaths of children and are believed to be restless spirits. Who have not found peace in the afterlife.
These types of ghosts were considered one of the scariest and worst creatures in Icelandic folklore. In this article will be discuss what kind of ghosts these were and what is the story behind these ghost stories.
The appearance of the children’s ghosts
The appearance of these child ghosts is believed to be such that they resemble a raven or some bird. That rise up on one knee and one hand and then flutter around. Which then looks like a flying skeleton with wings or some kind of spirit. The color of the children’s ghosts depends on the color of the blanket or cloth which they were wrapped in when they died.
Some Icelandic folktales show children’s ghosts who return and seek revenge for wrongs that have been done to them in their short lives. It could be anything from murder to negligence. This superstition was so connected with people that people said they sometimes heard ghosts howl. They didn’t seem to be wise. Then the children’s ghosts wail and scream a lot in storms, for example. But rarely speak. To get rid of a ghost children. You see, you should chase it and it will eventually run away to its mother.
Unwelcome children
These types of baby ghosts are usually newborn babies who are left in the open to die. In the past, it was sometimes the fate of unwelcome children to be carried out, not least when they were born out of wedlock and the birth could not be reported to avoid scandal.
That at children were carried out to die was common in paganism and during conversion to Christianity. After conversion was this forbidden. But people still continued to do it, even though it was considered a sin by the church.
An example of why people had to do this to children in the old days. It was when children were born out of wedlock and the birth could not be announced to avoid scandal. These were also the children of people who were related, for example siblings. For related people to have children together was a particularly bad crime. Which sometimes warned of the death penalty so these children could not be reported at all.
Often this also happens because big farmers and priests and other big men in the community raped the maids who were working for them. Then the men just wrote in church books that the working man on the farm had the child and not themselves. That’s how the men got away with having the children because no one could prove anything because it wasn’t possible in the old days. And if the women started having any problems with this, their masters would just throw them out the door and they would starve. The women were therefore forced to carry the child out to die because they could neither care for it nor afford to raise it.
The children’s ghost stories explanation
The church and the authorities tried to prevent people from taking the children out. They did it, for example, by spreading terrible ghost stories about children wood haunt their parents. And especially the mothers. For carrying them out to die. People in the old days in Iceland as well as elsewhere were also very superstitious and afraid of the dark. Fear of the dark was particularly strong in Iceland because of how much darkness there is for a large part of the year. So people believed too much in such stories like this in the past.
This superstition was often such that people heard something out of natural causes. Like in the wind in the dark for example but was so superstitious that it said it was a ghost. Here is then the reasons why these stories of Útburði or children’s ghosts started. These children’s ghost stories also reflect people’s remorse for having to do this to their children in centuries past.
Stories like this are often associated with Halloween. In another article I wrote about the history of Halloween, you can also look at how Halloween is related to winter.