/x/ - Paranormal

Now comes my story.

My story isn’t really anything dramatic. I was around 7 years old and it was summer, and I lived on the country side. It was during sunset when I was jumping on a trampoline outside when I suddenly saw a bull on a hill on our land. It was strange since we don’t own bulls nor cows, and the nearest farmers who own bulls and cows were on the other side of a canal that separates our land from theirs, and it would be almost impossible for a cow/bull to cross it. There was something ‘off’ with it though, like there was something wrong with it. At first, I didn’t know why, but I felt afraid of the thing. Then it changed. It shrinked and then stood up on two legs and took a human form. As I looked at it I couldn’t shake the feeling away that it was watching me as well. I was paralyzed for a moment from fear, but I managed to run back to my home. When I was there I immediately informed my grandparents. My grandfather laughed at me, so I dragged him out to show him the thing. When I we went outside, it was already gone.

And that’s the last thing I remember of the thing. As I said, my story isn’t really that interesting, but what I found interesting is that I am not the first to have experienced something similar.

Apparently, there was an eight-year-old boy in Fnjóskadal that witnessed something similar when Þorgeir was still alive. One night the boy went outside and saw an alive but mutilated horse nearby. Frightened, the boy ran inside the house and gathered the ones inside to see the animal. When they went outside, it had disappeared, nowhere to be found. What’s really interesting is that not long after that, Þorgeir’s daughter visited them and asked if she could stay for the night, and it was therefor thought that the thing that the boy saw was Þorgeirsboli.

I do not remember if there came a visitor that day or night, nor if anyone came the next days. In any case, I asked my grandmother, and unfortunately, she doesn’t remember

So what about you guys, any stories you'd like to share?

>>42842

>>42841

When I read your story, it reminded me of all those skinwalker stories I've read about on /x/ and elsewhere. This is the first time I read one that takes place in Europe though. Iceland has a long history of magic, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised… Was it a spirit or some kind of wizard who learned how to shapeshift? I wonder.

I've never had an encounter with the paranormal unfortunately, but my mother did. When she was a teenager, she lived in a big house in the countryside, in Tuscany (Italy), and apparently it was haunted by a ghost. Her brothers and cousins saw it too, they confirmed this to me when I asked them. This ghost or whatever it was, moved objects around, pulled their bedsheets, and one time it even appeared to them dressed only with a white jacket.

OP, is it true that many Icelandic people still believe in the 'hidden folk'? I watched a documentary about that once…

>>42845

I have never thought of the likeness between a skinwalker and Þorgeirsboli, but that is an interesting comparison. I don't know much about skinwalkers, so correct me if I'm wrong.If I remember correctly, a skinwalker was is a native American witch that became a shapeshifter. If that's the case then Þorgeirsboli is a different beast.

As I said, the story says that a the man called Þorgeir was a sorcerer, created the thing The man himself was not a shapeshifter. If I were to make a comparison, it would perhaps me more akin to a shapeshifting chimera spirit.

I won't pretend to be an expert on folklore from other countries other than my own, but I think it is not wrong of me to say that Icelandic tales are quite different in the sense that some ghosts are not summoned/resurrected, but literally created. I don't remember the name of the ghost, but I remember a tale that spoke of a ghost that was created by some alchemist, and that ghost would haunt him and his household ever since, but that is another topic.

>OP, is it true that many Icelandic people still believe in the 'hidden folk'?

I'm afraid that I will have to disappoint you, but most Icelanders don't really believe in anything paranormal, at least in my experience. To clarify, city-folks (mainly those from Reykjavík and towns) are more than half the population, and they don't really believe in anything paranormal, and definitely not folklore. On the country side that tends to be different (again just from my experience), especially on the south side of the country (most of the ghost stories happen around there.) There you might find at least some belief in the paranormal, and some folklore as well.

>>42847

Well yeah, the theory of how a skinwalker is born is different from the Þorgeirsboli, but what you saw sounds pretty much exactly like a skinwalker story. I just thought it was an interesting similarity.

>I'm afraid that I will have to disappoint you, but most Icelanders don't really believe in anything paranormal, at least in my experience.

Ahh, what a shame. I sort of expected it, but it would have been nice to be proven wrong! I've heard that Iceland has a long and rich literary tradition, do you have a lot of books about folklore? Has anyone managed to document the local legends before people stopped believing in them?

>>42863

Yeah there are hundreds of books written on our folklore that are very detailed, but the older ones tend to be better (books from early last century or even earlier). Pretty much all our local legends are recorded or written and almost all ghosts in Iceland (if not all) have personal names whose personal backgrounds are known, and it's all recorded. I don't know every one of them, but I intend to know most as I'm trying to collect old books on Icelandic folklore.

The reason why pretty much every local legends are recorded is because of our low population (just before WW2 we were about 40 thousand, and then after the war about 80 thousand, and today we are 332 thousand), and rumors and stories spread quickly in such a small country, and then get recorded. At least that was how things were in the past.

This doesn't really happen nowadays because of the modern and comfortable lifestyle we live now, where we don't need stories to make cold winter nights more bearable. It's unfortunate, but that's how things just are.