Today, we’re diving into some intriguing Icelandic tales from East Iceland, specifically some tales from the life of Pastor Vigfús Benediktsson. Back in the 18th century, Vigfús found himself dealing with some pretty wild supernatural encounters. Luckily for him, some of the intuitive and resourceful women in his life were able to help him out when he was in some spooky situations.

Before landing the gig at Kalfafellsstadur, Vigfús was the pastor at Einholt. Around this time, he bumped heads with a local named Ólafur at Viðborðssel. Let’s just say things got heated from time to time.

One day, Vigfús planned to visit his parishioners, despite the nasty weather. His wife, sensing trouble, advised against stopping at Ólafur’s place, the guy who he bumped heads with, but Vigfús went anyway. At Viðborðssel, Ólafur welcomed him and offered a drink from a mysterious bottle. At first, Vigfús did not drink from the bottle but as time went on he was getting thirsty, so he loosened the cork on the bottle.

Just as Vigfús was about to have a sip, his wife burst in, warning him not to drink. Instead, she took a swig, and spat it out. The dog in  the room licked up the liquid she spat out and died on the spot! After that, she reassured Vigfús it was safe to drink, and he did without any harm. Personally, I wouldn’t want to touch the bottle after seeing the dog die from drinking for it but clearly Vigfus trusted his wife with his life.

On another occasion, Vigfús was traveling through the Öræfi district and ended up at Hnappavellir, planning to push on to Hof, which was not far off. While he had been offered an escort, he did not find one necessary, so he set off alone despite the late hour.

Later, he showed up at a nearby croft, Litlahof, and saw that someone was in the window. The woman that came out to greet him was surprised to see the pastor so late. Pastor Vigfús asked her if he could stay the night and that she keep a light burning the whole night.

Back at home, Malfríður (Sigfús´s wife) woke up in a panic because she knew that her Fúsi, the nickname she has for her husband Sigfús, was in trouble. To make sure no harm came his way, she gnawed on a piece of gray cloth from her bodice all night until dawn. When dawn arrived she knew he was safe and she stopped gnawing on the cloth.

Before his East Iceland days, Vigfús had a tough time in Aðalvik in the Westfjords, thanks to some hostile magicians. They had been using their magic to torment Vigfús and that is why he had left the area to serve in the East. Even though he was far removed from them, their grudge against him had not subsided, so they decided to wake up a ghost and sent it to kill Vigfus after he moved east!

As his leather-clad ghost made its way to Vigfus, it stopped first at Tvisker, scaring a farmer named Einar on Shrove Tuesday. When the ghost arrived early in the morning, Einar was the only one awake. Einar asked the stranger where he was from and the answer was the Westfjords. Einar assumed the stranger had a message for him, so he asked if he had any news and the ghost replied that one of Einar’s sheep was dead in the fields.

When Einar heard this, he immediately felt something was not right because how can a man from the Westfjords, which is very far from the East, know the mark that Einar has on his sheep. Just to note that it is common practice for farmers to mark their sheep in some way so they can find them during the yearly sheep round up called rettir or if they get lost in general. It make sense that someone from your own region would know the mark you have on your sheep but for a person from a very far area to know this is odd.

To test the stranger even more, Einar asked him where a key was that had been lost twenty years prior. Without a hesitation, the ghost told him exactly where it was. Now, Einar knew for sure this was not a regular person. He mustered up the courage and demanded that the stranger get out. The ghost did as he commanded but not without leaving his mark. As he crossed through doorways, the frames of the doors was ripped off and the wood pieces that once were doorframes were found scattered outside the next day.

The ghost continued with his mission to kill Vigfus. Before it reached Einholt, the nanny for the children of Pastor Vigfus, asked him to sleep in her bed that night and she would sleep in his. She was an old and wise woman that knew many things, so Vigfus did as she suggested. That same night the ghost arrived to the Pastor’s house in Einholt.

The next morning Vigfus was alarmed when he saw that the sheets in his bed where the nanny slept had been ripped to shreds. The older woman was lying on the floor and looking so weak. Vigfus went to see if she was ok.

She was able to tell him of the fierce confrontation she had with the ghost that night and that the sorcerer brothers that had sent the ghost will not being sending any more messages. It took all her strength to relay that to him. After taking a deep breath, she lay her head down and died.

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East Iceland is a lovely place that most people just drive through and don’t often take the time to check out because they don’t know what they are missing. I will do an episode dedicated to the east but one thing that adds to the spookiness of this area is that it tends to be quite foggy.

In my opinion, thick fog lends itself to scary ghost stories and I can only imagine what people have seen or thought they saw in the dense fog that can descend upon the region.

Þoka – fog

1 .The Guardians of Iceland and other Icelandic Folk Tales

2. Icelandic Folk Legends: Tales of Apparitions, Outlaws, and Things Unseen

3. The Little Book of the Hidden People: Twenty Stories of Elves from Icelandic Folklore

4. Icelandic Folk Tales

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